Supersolidus Sintering of Cr Prealloyed Steels by Inductive Heating

For powder metallurgy products, high density is an essential requirements to obtain maximum mechanical properties. Here, supersolidus liquid phase sintering (SSPLS) is an effective means to attain high sintered density, as known from PM high speed steels. In the present work it is shown that this technique can also be applied to Cr prealloyed low alloy steel grades. Supersolidus sintering through indirect heating requires precise control of temperature and also the atmosphere, to avoid uncontrolled changes of the carbon level. Higher C contents are beneficial here since they enable lower temperatures and result in wider temperature windows for sintering. The temperatures necessary for SSLPS at moderate C levels are fairly high for standard sintering furnaces, therefore induction sintering was studied in this work. It showed that, as was to be expected, also here precise temperature control is required, but for any carbon level tested a sintering temperature could be identified that yielded high sintered density and good shape retention. The high density attained, in combination with the very high temperatures, results in pronounced grain growth, this process no more being inhibited by the presence of pores, which is undesirable but can however be remedied by suitable heat treatment.

Effects of Aluminium Contents and Consolidation Techniques on Chemical Composition, Microstructure and Dielectric Properties of Strontium Titanate

It has been accepted that compositions and microstructures significantly affected dielectric properties of materials. In general, chemical compositions were influenced by additive contents, while consolidation techniques controlled microstructure of the materials to have appropriate grain sizes. This study, therefore, aimed at examining effects of aluminium contents and consolidation techniques on chemical compositions and microstructures of the strontium titanate. Experimental results revealed that at higher aluminium contents, only small quantities of TiO 2 secondary phase were present, while grain sizes generally decreased. The results also indicated that the cold isostatic pressing technique led to high sintered density. The greatest dielectric constant (281.5 at 1 MHz) obtained in this study was achieved in strontium titanate sample with 30 at% of Al addition, pressed by cold isostatic pressing. Enhancement of dielectric constant of the sample was attributed to low secondary phase, fine grain sizes and high sintered density.

Two-Step Pressureless Sintering of Silicon Carbide-Based Materials

Pressureless sintering of silicon carbide powder requires addition of sintering aids and high sintering temperature (>2100°C) in order to achieve high sintered density (>95% T.D.). The high sintering temperature normally causes an exaggerated grain growth which can compromise the mechanical properties. Two-step sintering (TSS) can be used to overcome this problem. By this method, high sintered density is obtained avoiding the grain growth associated to the last step of the sintering. Two-step sintering was successfully applied to different commercial silicon carbide powders with different sintering mechanism: solid-state and liquid-phase sintering. In both cases the sintering temperature was set nearly 100 °C below the temperature conventionally required. Microstructures of samples obtained by TSS and conventional sintering (CS) processes were compared. TSS-SiC showed finer microstructure consisted of equiaxed grains with very similar density. The beneficial effects of the two-step sintering process were more evident in the solid state sintering. In this case sintered density higher than 98% was achieved with T<2000 °C.

Studies on the reaction sintered zirconia-mullite-alumina composites with titania as additive

Zirconia-mullite-alumina composites were prepared by reaction sintering of micro fine calcined alumina and zircon flour in different ratios. TiO2 was added in different proportions as an additive and the starting materials were iso-statically pressed. The Al2O3 / ZrO2 ratios and the proportions of the TiO2 additive content were found to influence the physico-mechanical properties of the compacts significantly. The fabricated compacts exhibited exceptionally high sintered density, mechanical strength and corrosion resistance. From the micro-structural analysis of the sintered compacts it has been observed that the relative size of the ZrO2 grains and relative proportion of t-ZrO2 phase in the batches with TiO2 additive was more compared to batches without TiO2 additive.

Influence of Hydrothermal Reaction Temperature and pH on Phase Stability of Hydroxyapatite

The effect of hydrothermal reaction temperature and pH on crystallite size, phase stability, and sintered density of hydroxyapatite (HAp) has been investigated. The crystallite size increased with the increase in temperature but was not significantly affected by pH. The decomposition of HAp into tricalcium phosphate was observed at 1250°C and the extent of decomposition decreased with increase in pH. The influence of temperature and pH on the crystallite size and the decomposition was related to the decrease in solubility of Ca2+. The phase stability of HAp, prepared hydrothermally, in HAp/zirconia composites was higher than that of commercial HAp due to its high sintered density.